TITLE:
The Impact of Dripline Parameters on Water Travel Time: A Predictive Modeling Study for Precision Irrigation
AUTHORS:
Gregory Guevara Rodríguez, Fernando Watson Hernandez
KEYWORDS:
Drip Irrigation, Hydraulic Simulation, Travel Time
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.16 No.12,
December
26,
2025
ABSTRACT: Accurate prediction of water travel time in drip irrigation systems is essential for efficient water and nutrient delivery. This study develops a predictive model for travel time by discretizing the dripline into segments and calculating the advance time within each segment based on established hydraulic principles. Using Python 3.12, we implemented a model that relates travel time to key dripline parameters: emitter flow rate, dripline diameter, and segment length. A total of 1,536 combinations of parameters were simulated to train and evaluate the model. Optimization techniques from SciPy, including a suite of algorithms such as SLSQP, BFGS, Nelder-Mead, Powell, TNC, and COBYLA, were used to calibrate the model parameters against target travel times. SLSQP and BFGS showed the best performance, achieving R2 values of 0.99 and RMSE values of approximately 14.05 minutes. A field trial was conducted to validate the model using measured versus calculated travel times, showing high agreement between observed and predicted values. Our analysis reveals the significant influence of dripper flow rate on travel time, followed by dripline diameter and segment length. It was also found that 95% of the dripline length is traversed in only 50% of the total travel time, indicating a non-linear advance dynamic. This research demonstrates the effectiveness of optimization methods for accurately predicting travel time in drip irrigation systems, contributing to improved irrigation scheduling and more precise resource applications.